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Plain Old White Bread

October 27, 2009 - 10:54pm

OldWoodenSpoon

Plain Old White Bread

We've had company for several days and I baked up a storm, but we ate most of it, and I gave the rest away as gifts. It was a lot of fun but this morning there were only a couple slices of leftover sourdough for toast and that was it. Great. I get to bake! But it's a work day and not much time available so I baked just a couple of loaves of white bread to get us to the weekend.

and

This was based on a recipe by nbicomputers (thank you Stan!) that I found a few days ago and modified. The recipe was for a straight dough, and it was beautiful. I made up a preferment first from about 30% of the flour and water, and let it ferment for about 4 hours before I built the main dough. I was trying to get some more flavor. I also scaled it up a little to fill two large loaf pans, but I kept it to just one egg and cut back on the sugar somewhat. It still turned out a wonderful light texture, although the flavor is still somewhat sweeter than I wanted. I also forgot to switch the oven from convection for preheating to straight bake, so I got a crisper, browner crust than I intended. Brushing it with some melted butter right out of the oven seems to have taken care of that. I'll certainly bake this one again one day.

Thanks for helping out though siuflower. I looked at that recipe as well. Thanks too, to everyone for the kind words and encouragement. I'm pleased to be able to share for a change, instead of always receiving.

First, let me beg your understanding and tolerance for my inexactness here. I'm new at this sharing and get caught up in what I'm doing, forgetting to kep up with my notes. I never dreamed anyone would ask me for a recipe! I'm honored, and in the future I'll try to be more prepared. The following is my best effort for now.

My adaptation was based on the baker's percentages in the above post, found in the text just above the pictures. I scaled it to fill two large loaf pans, as follows:

MILK 60% 476g (non-fat)

SALT 2% 16g

EGG 8% 63g (one large brown)

OIL 8% 63g (corn oil for us)

SUGAR 8% 63g (I used only about 45g)

YEAST 3% 24g (Calls for Fresh yeast, or use 8g IDY)

FLOUR 100% 794g (used KAF AP)

I took nbicomputer's suggestion later in the above-linked thread and created a preferment with 250g flour, 180g milk and 8g yeast, and let it ferment for 4 hours. I then added the rest of the ingredients, witholding the salt, to my Bosch mixer (25 years old) and blended till shaggy (about 2 minutes), then allowed it to sit for an autolyse period of 30 minutes.

I added the salt and machine-kneaded for four minutes, then turned the dough out onto a lightly floured board to finish by hand. I thought the dough needed to be a bit more moist so I kneaded in a few splashes of water. When satisfied with the texture and moisture I kneaded for two minutes steadily, then rounded it and let it rest for 5 minutes.

I formed these loaves into rectangles, folded into triangles, and then rolled them up to fit my loaf pans. I covered them to rise at room temperature (about 74F) till about 1 inch over the lip of the pans, then into the oven at 450F. As I said above, I "forgot" to change the oven over to regular bake from convection (I usually preheat with convection) so these baked on convection. They were fully done and golden all over after 30 minutes. Because the convection turned them a bit crisp on top I brushed them thoroughly with melted butter right out of the oven to soften them up, which worked quite well.

I hope it is enough for you to go on. Good luck with it, thanks again to Stan Ginsberg aka nbicomputers who did the real work on this, and happy baking!

sorry to disapoint you but stan is a writer and finance analiast and also on the other coast

i am an old ret baker in new york

we are curently colaberation on a book deal which will be published next year on the history of and what it was like to be a jewish baker in new york. it will inclued my formulas that have been passed down from baker to baker to be used in comericial bakeries and have never before apperied in print other than hand written scraps of paper soild and falling appert from years of use

bye the way that is why i have not and currently cannot post any more formulas because of the contract with the publiches gives him first pick and i am forbiden to do or post anything that would detract from the books value.

I have learned a lot from you over the years here at the forum. Your experience and advice has made me a better baker, thanks very much. I'm sure I'm not the only one disappointed that someone talked you into making a deal that puts a muzzle on your wisdom. I'll buy the book if you have it published and I'm looking forward to that day.

its a done deal ! there is a comitment from the publisher to have it in print six months from the dead line and we must submit the manuscript by late next year but we are pushing to have it in the publishers hands by spring as to not miss next year holiday buying season.

relates to recipes that will specifically be covered in the book, i.e., Jewish bakery goods -- NOT Italian, NOT German, NOT good old Wisconsin, and emphatically NOT the kind of general information and help that Norm has been giving on this forum for some time.

Having appreciated your unique video on the proper way to klop a kaiser roll, I'd urge you to talk to the publisher about including an instructional video illustrating techniques that go with the formulas.

that I overlooked yet another detail. Thanks for the catch. I completely missed the "fresh comressed yeast" reference before he went into the formula itself. No conversion was done, and there is three times as much yeast as should be used. Odd that although it rose like a rocket it does not have an excessive or even particularly noticable yeasty flavor or smell. It was quite good as toast, and in a lunch sandwich today. I will note this error in the formula posted above to correct it.

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